Post navigation

Discontent is Contagious. So is Enthusiasm.

You know when you get to school/work and OMG you are wearing the SAME THING as your friend? How. Embarrassing. That’s kind of how I felt when Alas, Morehnai, and I all posted on the same day about discontent, disappointment, malaise, and burnout in this latest patch. We didn’t plan it. It was just “going around.”

A few weeks later, we had positive thinking going around. We had some unfortunate drama, people left the guild, and suddenly the guild was revitalized – bouncing back from a potentially disastrous situation with a stubborn determination and dedication to our guild. WE WILL BE AWESOME, DAMMIT, DESPITE ADVERSITY!

Wednesday night, we had NOTHING planned, yet a bunch of us were in guild chat making horribly inappropriate remarks about pedo-tree. It was the most fun I’ve had on a not-raid night in a long time. And the thing was… fun begets fun. Socialization begets socialization. On another night, I might have logged in, seen nobody online, done a few herbing laps, gotten bored, and logged off. But people WERE online and having fun… which made ME stay online… and THEY probably stayed online longer than they normally would… and subsequent loggers-on saw ALL OF US having fun and THEY stayed around too.

Rinse, repeat on Thursday Night. This time, we were in vent and I discovered that I was TOTALLY SPECCED WRONG in cat form. Ok, not totally wrong, but let’s just say that EJ sometimes has a tenuous grasp on the reality of non-elite playing. Twig made some cute comments into vent (dammit, she needs to SLEEP). We did some SRS BZNS orb farming for guildie boots.

So, this feels so “back to normal”, though I can say that we probably haven’t been this “normal” since the disastrous Patch 4.2 hit. It’s nice. Gnoble says I’m getting my WoW second wind. Hell, I think we all are.

Well… were getting our wow second wind. Then, Friday, we heard about the fucking pandas. A bunch of people are probably going to quit because of it. Not now, but our guild definitely has a shelf-life ending at the next expansion. And possibly sooner, after we kick the next patch’s ass. Depressing, right?

But screw it. Live for today, right? Tonight is RAID NIGHT. I’m getting pumped watching Francis. It will be spectacularly awesome.

It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. Just because I accept SOME silly doesn’t mean I am locked into accepting ALL silly.

I let Twig eat certain food on the couch. Other food I say “hell no” and make her eat it at the table. Just by allowing some food to be eaten on the couch doesn’t mean I’m obliged to allow ALL food to be eaten on the couch. And a food that is not-so-messy to you may seem extremely messy to me and OMG NOT ON MY COUCH.

That is crazy to me. I have not met anyone in our guild that is not really pumped for MoP. Did no one in your guld get the live ticket and see the cool screen shots? These pandas are so far from ‘cute and silly’ that it is shocking anyone can call them that.

And the screenshots from the news zone? Oh man I can’t wait to get in there and trash the place, er I mean quest through it. The ONLY thing I did not like from Blizcon was the stuff about how going cat in a bear spec will be less effective… slightly. That is all. The rest was sweet.

I LOVE love love love love the talent changes. I am going to have to do a whole post on those because I think a lot of folks misunderstand what they are trying to do. That stuff you mentioned about ‘messing up’ your spec and EJ not getting non eliete play is exactly what this new system will help with. Now you can pick talents based on play style and not min-max. And if those don’t work for a fight or a start you are using… you can change them on the fly now just like glyphs!

Well, I have to chime in to say that I love pretty much everything I have heard and seen about Mists of Pandaria. The panda models look awesome, I can’t wait to play a Panda Monk, the vistas they showed us of the new continent during Blizzcon look awesome, and while I’m scratching my head a little bit at the pet battles a bit of Pokemon-esque flavor with my non-combat pets does sound interesting.

I even signed up for the annual pass thing the night that it was announced at Blizzcon.

I’m pretty psyched about it too. I could honestly take or leave the Pandaren race, but I love the idea of the Monk class, the new talent trees look way cool for the classes that seem finished (a few really don’t, imo, if you look at all of them), and the artwork previews are gorgeous. There are some features I probably won’t be using, but that doesn’t take away from the bits I do like.

I hate guild shopping, and I’m sick of it. When I realized about EtI’s likely “shelf life,” my first reaction was that I’d probably quit then as well, just to avoid having to start all over with another guild again. But with the stuff that’ll be added to the game…if everything comes out as advertised, I’ll give it one more go, I think.

That is crazy to me. I have not met anyone in our guild that is not really pumped for MoP. Did no one in your guld get the live ticket and see the cool screen shots? These pandas are so far from ‘cute and silly’ that it is shocking anyone can call them that.

And the screenshots from the news zone? Oh man I can’t wait to get in there and trash the place, er I mean quest through it. The ONLY thing I did not like from Blizcon was the stuff about how going cat in a bear spec will be less effective… slightly. That is all. The rest was sweet.

I LOVE love love love love the talent changes. I am going to have to do a whole post on those because I think a lot of folks misunderstand what they are trying to do.

We had a friend who is in our guild and also another guild over for Blizzcon with us. She like us was psyched with the announcements, then logged in to her other guild and got real quiet. Then after a while she logged over to Crits and Giggles and I heard her laugh almost right away. She said “the other guild was so negative about MoP, too much QQ. I love our guild. I logged on and they’re all so enthusiastic!”

What I’m trying to say is I think that a lot of enthusiasm or hatred for the announced changes is, like you say, contagious. I would very much encourage those who are excited for the changes to consider now whether they need to have plans in place for the expansion such as changing guilds or servers. It’s not right or wrong to be mad or excited, so if you (not you Zel; some generic ‘you’) feel like the lone voice of reason in your guild of insane panda-groupie pokemon huggers, maybe you should move.

Well, the panda issue is one to be dealt with when it comes out, which is a long time away I may add. 4.3 is not even live yet and people are freaking about an expansion that is probably close to a year away.

I agree that a pand that resembles Kung Fu panda by disney would be a turn off, but thast not what they are showing. Aside fomr the Panda’s themselves the landscapes and art are amazing, and they have even mentioned on the forums somewhere about adding some newness to the old races graphics wise.

For those that are Panda minded yay, me personally I only care what this new expansion is goign to mean for my priest here. I am a healer, I heal, thats about it. I care about the new talent tree’s and how they will change things. But lets be serious here, its so freaking far away that nothing we haev seen even means jac at this point. Hell there are still chnages cming in for 4.3 so I know that this stuff is going to change umpteen times before the next expansion.

Its a picture on a web page with writing on it at this point. Its nto even worth raging or squealing with joy about. A player cant even latch onto anything about it talent/spec/mechanics wise as none of it is set in stone yet. Hell its basically only on the chalkboard, its not even written in ink so to speak.

And the 6 point talent tree…meh, I agree with a writing I had perused by Grumpy Elf when he says they basically are taking the speccing out of the game so that nobody can have a bad spec. Most of the talent abilities we have now will go into the class level learned abilities. The talent tree will have a few shinies and the rest will actually be a flavor choice. None of them will be the make or break of the class. They dont want hwo you pick your talents to be the make or break. It may actually coem down to how you play in the furture and not how you are specced, as they will be no true abilities in your mighty six point talent tree that will be the game changer.

Yikes what a wall of text and I apologize for it. I guess the point is, dont get excited, dont get angry, its all smoke an mirrors for now. Best forget about MoP as it is and focus on 4.3 for now. Deathwing is still waiting to eat you, and no panda, no matter how lame or cool he looks is gonna change that.